Photosymbiosis and the expansion of shallow-water corals.

Frankowiak K; Wang XT; Sigman DM; Gothmann AM; Kitahara MV; Mazur M; Meibom A; Stolarski J

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1601122

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Journal article

Photosymbiosis and the expansion of shallow-water corals.

Frankowiak K Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warsaw, Poland.
Wang XT Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Sigman DM Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Gothmann AM School of Oceanography, University of Washington, 1492 NE Boat Street, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.
Kitahara MV Marine Sciences Department, Federal University of São Paulo, Santos, São Paulo 11030-400, Brazil.
Mazur M Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, PL-02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
Meibom A Laboratory for Biological Geochemistry, School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Center for Advanced Surface Analysis, Institute of Earth Sciences, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Stolarski J Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warsaw, Poland.

2016-11-17

Published in:

Science advances. - 2016

English Roughly 240 million years ago (Ma), scleractinian corals rapidly expanded and diversified across shallow marine environments. The main driver behind this evolution is uncertain, but the ecological success of modern reef-building corals is attributed to their nutritional symbiosis with photosynthesizing dinoflagellate algae. We show that a suite of exceptionally preserved Late Triassic (ca. 212 Ma) coral skeletons from Antalya (Turkey) have microstructures, carbonate 13C/12C and 18O/16O, and intracrystalline skeletal organic matter 15N/14N all indicating symbiosis. This includes species with growth forms conventionally considered asymbiotic. The nitrogen isotopes further suggest that their Tethys Sea habitat was a nutrient-poor, low-productivity marine environment in which photosymbiosis would be highly advantageous. Thus, coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis was likely a key driver in the evolution and expansion of shallow-water scleractinians.

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